"Judith Oppenheimer, president of ICB Consultancy, said that although it is "impossible" that Sprint didn't know it was carrying its competitor's misdials, if this was truly illegal or even a problem, carriers would go after each other for stealing business. The fact that they haven't is evidence to the contrary."

"The hardest part of setting up a toll-free account is figuring out prices and the best way to reach the providers... Discount Long Distance Digest and WhoSells800.com have additional links as well as articles about the long-distance industry."

"VeriSign is in the database commodity business," said Judith Oppenheimer, publisher of ICB Tollfree News, an online publication that covers telecommunications and the domain-name system. "It would like to run the numbering as well as the naming space, sans ITU [International Telecommunications Union] or ICANN oversight."

An article at ICB TollFree argues that there is a hidden "gotcha" in these new contracts - an ICANN assertion of control over the utterly obscure but incredibly important telephony initiative called ENUM. Indeed, this may only be one symptom of a larger problem."

Keyes told ICBTollFreeNews.com, which first reported the story, "No severance. Immediate. I have not been asked to help in any transition and they seem to have no idea how this will impact the marketplace."

Easy-to-remember, toll-free numbers such as Maroone's are a "cash register" for businesses,
especially "vanity numbers" using a word associated with the company or its service, says Judith Oppenheimer, an industry analyst and
president of ICB Toll-Free Consultancy in New York.

Columnist Brian Livingston braved the insanity of ICANN's recent board meeting, and spoke with Judith Oppenheimer, "the editor of an astute high-tech newsletter," he says, to help clarify outcomes of the messy aftermath.

No one said it would be easy and it wasn't. We expected ICANN-centricity to present front and center and, in all its foolish glory, it did. But even we couldn't have predicted an audience stunned into silence by the absurdity, the mockery, and sometimes cartoonish embarrassment of the ICANN board's performance. ICB's Judith Oppenheimer reports from the ICANN Annual Meeting in Marina Del Rey.

The At Large Members of ICANN are participating in a historic first -- a worldwide online election to choose Directors for the Internet's governing body, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

After silently missing its scheduled August 1 date for opening the new TLD application process--and just one day after ICANN Chief Financial Officer Andrew McLaughlin told Newsbytes' David McGuire that the application forms would be posted today--ICANN has posted an announcement on its website announcing a delay of at least one month.

On July 29 at 12 p.m., the floodgates to new toll free code 866 will open. If recent history is any indication, "replications" of existing vanity numbers and competition for others, will leave the database premium-number exhausted within half an hour or so of code opening.

We now face a coup, 21st century-style imperialism: quite literally, a
corporate sponsored government takeover. It turns the cyberspace territory
as we've known it, into CyberHQ - cyber corporate headquarters.

Internet address king Network Solutions Inc. this week notified thousands
of owners of online domain names with delinquent registration bills that
it would "auction" their Internet addresses to the public unless
they pay by Wednesday.

"We now face a coup, 21st century-style imperialism: quite literally,
a corporate sponsored government takeover. It turns the cyberspace
territory as we've known it, into CyberHQ - cyber corporate headquarters.
Attacking on two fronts, the global trademark lobby is bulldozing its
supremacy agenda through ICANN, an eager participant, and the U.S.
Congress, itself no stranger to "bending over" for corporate
cause ..."

Dana Blankenhorn writes in a recent article entitled 'End Domain Name
Hoarding,' "Hoarding and speculation have captured the imagination of
otherwise-sane individuals in politics, in sport, even in the
church." With all due respect to Mr. Blankenhorn, cybersquatting is
the registration of domain names known to be trademarks, for the express
purpose of selling them to the trademark owner or its competitor...

According to an article on the National Arbitration Forum website (http://www.arbforum.com),
a Federal Court conducted an extensive review of domain dispute arbitrator
NAF and confirmed that it is "a reasonable, fair and impartial
forum."

The question arose this week in Afternic.com's burgeoning policy forum, as
to what role the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) plays in
the ICANN debacle beyond its role as one of the UDRP Arbitrators.

Because today more than ever, information is
power, ICB ''is offering a sharply discounted special on ICB Premium to help expand the
information power base, particularly to more small businesses and entrepreneurs.''

Patrick Townson, digest editor, notes, ''ICB's
Judith Oppenheimer is a frequent and valued contributor to 'TELECOM Digest.' The addition of ICB's daily 'HeadsUp Headlines,' with its unique spotlight on toll-free 800 and domain name issues, puts critical content on the front burner for digest readers. Its a win-win
relationship, and we're very pleased to have ICB on board.''

Recommend-It, a Web-site referral service, said yesterday it has recognized WhoSells800.com as one of its Top 10 Sites for Direct Marketers, in its new RecCenter, a directory of the top Web sites in its network.

New York, NY February 9, 2000 With over 43,000 registered sites on its roster, Recommend-It (http://recommend-it.com) has recognized WhoSells800.com (http://whosells800.com) as one of its Top 10 Sites for Direct Marketers in its new RecCenter, a directory of the top websites in its network.

With over 43,000 registered sites on its
roster, Recommend-It (http://recommend-it.com/) has recognized WhoSells800.com
(http://whosells800.com/) as one of its Top 10 Sites for Direct Marketers in
its new RecCenter, a directory of the top websites in its network.

HeadsUp Headlines is a free email service that
includes news summaries plus modified text and site access. At eight to 10 headlines daily, a
quick glance flags important 800 and dot-com developments for busy execs.

The
Office of Advocacy of the United States Small Business Administration
("Advocacy") submits these comments to Working Group C’s Interim
Report ("Interim Report"). WG-C was tasked by the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ("ICANN") to develop a
document showing the consensus on the introduction of new global top-level
domains ("gTLDs").

A former reader of Who's Mailing What, I've admired and respected the work of Denny Hatch for many years, but to my great surprise, he misses the boat on the subject of 800 vanity numbers and 800 versus 888, as well as domain names as trademarks, in the above reference article.

In savvy political fashion, the strategy here is one of semantics:
trademark interests claim dire need for “trademark protection," when what
they really want is "trademark supremacy," the divine right to any domain
name, trademark-related or not.

New York telemarketing consultancy ICB Inc. has launched an Internet-based directory of toll-free service providers. Branded WhoSells800.com (http://whosells800.com/), the site lists long-distance carriers, aggregators and resellers, agents, enhanced service providers and shared-use companies.

In a regulatory environment where the FCC has ruled that
user-interest-in-vanity number-issues should be addressed by the courts
under the trademark protection laws, and furthermore, where the
Commission's own regulations prohibit the free market from resolving these
concerns, 1 800 FLOWERS goes to court.

Protecting the value of and investment in a vanity number is, to be
sure, a valid consideration for individual holders of those numbers. But
the far more serious problem with the Commission's toll free policy is
that it threatens at best to substantially dilute and at worst to utterly
destroy the entire concept of toll free branding.

Putting on its most customer-friendly face, Bell Atlantic Corp. will take a stand against the billing of unauthorized service charges when it simplifies the process of removing them starting on Saturday.

Congressional leaders tell the FCC, "Vanity numbers are
extraordinarily valuable marketing tools for large and small businesses
alike...", "Large carriers are RespOrgs, SNAC members, and subscribers...
There exists a fundamental conflict of interest in the roles [they] have
in the toll free industry."

Attorney Charlie Gerow is a GOP candidate for Congress who is a strong
believer in the free market power of vanity toll free numbers. In 1996,
Gerow’s campaign bought 1-800-GO-GEROW, and has used the number
successfully in both races.

"Many 800 number companies offer competitively priced products and
services and are currently locked out of badly needed public capital
because of the FCC's stance," says Richard Sapio, CEO of 1 800 MUTUALS,
Inc.

In August, 1997, the Federal Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit
upheld a district court judgement regarding the toll-free number 1-800-FOR
LEASE. This case involved a finding by the jury that the number wrongfully
denied the plaintiff was, in and of itself, worth $50K to the plaintiff.

For many companies the use of vanity numbers goes far beyond
advertising or even marketing - the toll free number itself becomes a
brand or product name (e.g., 1-800-FLOWERS, 1-800-COLLECT, etc.) This is
good for business and economic growth. As such, the private commercial
transfer of numbers from one user to another serves legitimate business
purposes and is an integral part of the toll free marketing industry.

Judith Oppenheimer, a well known expert who
tracks the national and international technical developments of the emerging
telecom marketplace, had a wealth of strategic intelligence that needed
packaging.

Judith Oppenheimer, a well known expert who
tracks the national and international technical developments of the emerging
telecom marketplace, had a wealth of strategic intelligence that needed
packaging.

The toll free auction is dead, but only in the feline sense, i.e., it
may have a few more lives left. Don't be surprised to see it resurface in
another form in the future--perhaps even later this year. I wouldn't bet
on it, but neither would I bet against it

Should 1 888 FLOWERS be assigned to 1 800 FLOWERS? Regulators want to
know if you think right of first refusal - where the holder of a toll-free
number would have first dibs on matching numbers in new toll-free
exchanges - is a good idea or not, and why.

The possibility of a toll-free number auction
was a particularly hot topic at Supercomm ‘97 because it has the potential
to wreak havoc in the business world. Supercomm panelist David Berndt of
Ford Motor described his company's situation for ICB Toll Free News.

While most industry studies estimate the cost
of a coinless call, typically a calling card or toll-free call, at about 6
cents per call, the FCC’s payphone compensation plan reimburses payphone
operators at 35-cents for each completed call.

Borne of regulatory loophole -- and welcomed
by cellular carriers -- TollFree Cellular and its telco partners will
perhaps escape the greedy clutches of the FCC control patrol, currently
wreaking havoc in the wireline toll-free marketplace. (For more information
see ICB Toll Free News Cover Story.)

AT&T and ICB appear to be on the same side of this issue. John Cushman, Director of Toll-Free Services for AT&T supports ICB's view that specific toll-free numbers have an intrinsic value. As Cushman says, "I believe that the arguments ICB makes, relative to toll-free number value, are supported by the history of the toll-free industry, current RespOrg to RespOrg practices, and our customers' positions on vanity number protection.

Alluding to the problems that 800 subscribers
have had registering for 800 protection via their carriers, the FCC offered an unprecedented opportunity for subscribers to bypass the Resp
Orgs and communicate directly with Database Services Management, Inc. (DSMI), which
manages the 800 SMS Database.